5.6 Release notes

Table of Contents

1. Supported Platforms
2. Supported Firmware
3. Supported Cables
4. New Features
5. Fixed Issues
6. Known Issues

Supported Platforms

Product	Description
Mellanox SN2700, SN2740	SpectrumTM based 100GbE 1U Open Ethernet Switch with, 32 QSFP28 ports
Mellanox SN2410	SpectrumTM based 25GbE/100GbE 1U Open Ethernet Switch, 48 SFP28 ports, 8 QSFP28 ports
Mellanox SN2100	SpectrumTM based 100GbE 1U Open Ethernet switch, 16 QSFP28 ports
Mellanox SN2010	SpectrumTM based 25GbE/100GbE 1U Open Ethernet Switch, 18 SFP28 ports, 4 QSFP28 ports
Mellanox SN3700	Spectrum-2TM based 200GbE 1U Open Ethernet switch, 32 QSFP28 ports
Mellanox SN3700C	Spectrum-2TM based 100GbE 1U Open Ethernet switch, 32 QSFP28 ports
Mellanox SN3800	Spectrum-2TM based 100Gbe 2U Open Ethernet switch, 64 QSFP28 ports

Supported Firmware

Spectrum mellanox/mlxsw_spectrum-13.2000.2714 - Available via linux-firmware. mlxsw driver enforces this version

Spectrum-2 mellanox/mlxsw_spectrum-29.2000.2714 - Available via linux-firmware. mlxsw driver enforces this version

Supported Cables

For a list of the Mellanox supported cables please visit the LinkX^TM Cables and Transceivers page.

New Features

NOTE: For releases earlier than 4.19 please visit 5.2 release notes page.

Kernel	Category	Description
5.6	Packet drops monitoring: Tunnel and exceptions
	ETS and TBF qdisc offloads
	Default port priority
5.5	SN3800 in GA
	Packet drops monitoring: Layer 3 and exceptions
	Add extended ACK for EMADs error code indicating a bad parameter with string TLV
	Initial Spectrum-3 support
	Initial 400G support
5.4	Packet drops monitoring: Layer 2
	[CPU port's shared buffer occupancy monitoring[(Quality-of-Service)
5.3	Spectrum-2 SN3700 GA	Fully certified SN3700
	PTP	Add support for PTP (Spectrum only)
	ACL match on ingress device	Add support for new key: match on ingress
5.2	Spectrum-2 SN3700C GA	Fully certified SN3700C
5.1	Spectrum-2 GRE	Add support for GRE
	Spectrum-2 QoS	Add support for QoS
	VXLAN	Add VXLAN support for Spectrum-2 as well as FDB vetoing for both
	HW discard counters	Add additional HW discard counters to ethtool
	devlink dev info	Add new devlink info command to show ASIC revision, platform PSID and running FW version
5.0	One-armed router support	Add support to disable ICMP redirect generation
	VXLAN with VLAN-aware bridges support	VXLAN with VLAN-aware bridges support
	VXLAN router support	Add support for VXLAN routing
	Add hock Firmware upgrade support	Add support for ad hock Firmware version overriding the in-driver automatic Firmware upgrade
	Spectrum-2 MC router	Add support for IPv4/6 Multicast router
4.20	QoS MC-awarness	Add support for dedicated pool for BUM traffic
	VXLAN support	VXLAN with VLAN-unaware bridges support
4.19	VRRP	Support of Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol
	TC chain templates	Allow user to specify a template that would cover all the filters to be inserted in the chain
	Spectrum-2 support	Initial support for Spectrum-2: basic L2, L3 and ACLs
	QoS	Trust-DSCP and DSCP rewrite
	Counters	Include RFC-2819 counters in stats length
	FW Auto upgrade	Always bump required firmware version

Fixed Issues

Category	Description	Commit info
mlxsw: pci	Wait longer before accessing the device after reset	details
mlxsw: spectrum_dpipe	Add missing error path	details
mlxsw: core	Add validation of hardware device types for MGPIR register	details
mlxsw: minimal	Fix an error handling path in 'mlxsw_m_port_create()'	details
mlxsw: spectrum_qdisc	Include MC TCs in Qdisc counters	details
net: sch_prio	When ungrafting, replace with FIFO	details
mlxsw: spectrum	Wipe xstats.backlog of down ports	details

SN3700/SN3700C Supported Speeds

Speed [GbE]	AutoNeg NO/FC/ RS FEC	Force RS/KP4 FEC	Force FC FEC	Force NO FEC	Cable	Cable Length (m)	Link up time (sec)	Limitations
200 100(2x) 50(1x)	-	+	-	-	Optic	Up to 30	60	Mellanox to Mellanox only
200 100(2x) 50(1x)	-	+	-	-	AOM	Up to 100	60	Mellanox to Mellanox only
200 100(2x) 50(1x)	-	+	-	-	Copper	Up to 2	25	Mellanox to Mellanox only
100(4x)	-	+	-	-	Optic	Up to 100	45
100(4x)	-	+	-	-	AOM	Up to 10km	45
100(4x)	-	+	-	-	Copper	Up to 5	25
25/50(2x)	-	+	+	+	Optic	Up to 100	30
25/50(2x)	-	+	+	+	AOM	Up to 10km	30
25/50(2x)	-	+	+	+	Copper	Up to 5	25
10/40	-	-	+	+	Optic	Up to 100	10	10 Base T1 modules are not supported
10/40	-	-	+	+	AOM	Up to 10km	10	10 Base T1 modules are not supported
10/40	-	-	+	+	Copper	Up to 3	15	10 Base T1 modules are not supported
1	+	-	-	+	Optic	Up to 100	5
1	+	-	-	+	Copper	Up to 5	5

SN3800 Supported Speeds

Speed [GbE]	AutoNeg NO/FC	Force RS FEC	Force NO FEC	Cable	Cable Length (m)	Link up time (sec)	Limitations
100	-	+	+	Optic	Up to 100	60
100	-	+	+	Copper	Up to 5	60
50	-	+	+	Optic	Up to 100	40
50	-	+	+	Copper	Up to 5	40
40	-	-	+	Optic	Up to 100	40
40	-	-	+	Copper	Up to 5	40
25	-	+	+	Optic	Up to 100	60
25	-	+	+	Copper	Up to 5	60
10	-	-	+	Optic	Up to 100	20	10 Base T1 modules are not supported
10	-	-	+	Copper	Up to 5	20	10 Base T1 modules are not supported

Known Issues

Category	Description
Network configuration	Order of operations: Network configuration should be done bottom-up, teardown should be done top-down
ACL	ACL key size: Rules that match on L2 fields and the complete IPv6 header cannot be specified
Multicast snooping	MDB records mapped to the same multicast MAC will share the same MDB record in the device.
	Deleting such records from the bridge driver will result in the following error being printed to the kernel log: "Unable to remove port from MC DB"
FRR	FRR 7.3+ installs routes using nexthop objects which are not supported by mlxsw, causing it to reject the routes. This can be fixed by the command no zebra nexthop kernel enable. See this ticket for more details
Routing	When deleting an IP neighbour from user space, the neighbour transitions to FAILED state instead of being deleted completely. The neighbour is correctly deleted from the hardware data path and not marked with offload keyword. It can be deleted completely by issuing the deletion command again
Spectrum-2	Currently raising the link at 10/40Gb/s link speed is not supported when using 200Gb/s optical cables
SN3800	Split 4x25GbE not supported
SN3800	Cisco Bidi module is currently not supported
SN3800	Link is down after a few link toggles when using the MMA1B00-C100D 100G transceiver
SN3800	InfiniBand optical cables are currently not supported
SN3800	Currently raising the link at 25Gb/s / 100Gb/s link speed is not supported when using 200GbE copper cables
SN3800	Connectivity to a 3rd party switch systems may not go up when using copper and optical cables
SN3800	Traffic can be dropped due to high BER in link. Workaround: toggle the link
SN3800	High effective BER occurs when using optical and copper cables with 100GbE link speed
SN3700	At 200GbE speed, traffic drop occurs between SN3700 and IXIA
SN3700	200GbE optical cables are not supported